Patterico's Pontifications

9/1/2018

The “Off the Record” Trump Comments About Canada to Bloomberg: A Twitter Play in Three Acts

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 12:11 pm



Act 1:

Act 2:

Act 3:

You can’t go wrong counting on the dishonesty of Donald Trump.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

No R-E-S-P-E-C-T For Ariana Grande At Aretha Franklin’s Funeral

Filed under: General — Dana @ 12:02 pm



[guest post by Dana]

At yesterday’s funeral service for the legendary Aretha Franklin, 25-year old pop star Ariana Grande performed the classic “(You Make Me Feel Like A) Natural Woman.” After the performance, Bishop Charles H. Ellis III greeted the singer and thanked her while he hugged groped her before hundreds of people:

In the video, Grande is obviously tense and attempting to pull away from Ellis to create some space between them. This as his hand reaches further around her body toward her breast, and laughably blathers on about giving her respect. Given that he had to know this moment would make its way to the internet for the public at large to see, one wonders if he has gotten away with this sort of behavior before, without any consequences. Business as usual.

Moreover, this appears to be an example of just how easy it is for a woman to be be so caught off guard at finding herself in a most unexpected circumstance that she struggles to assertively react to inappropriate touching. There is that horrible moment of shock when one fully realizes what is happening, and confusion as one attempts to figure out how to literally, disengage. All of it making for one fleeting, awful moment. Grande is a not a novice at performing. It’s her livelihood, after all. But in this clip, she appears strained as she makes an effort to physically pull away from a dirty old man copping a feel in front of a huge audience.

For his part, Ellis apologized after receiving complaints about his behavior:

“It would never be my intention to touch any woman’s breast. … I don’t know I guess I put my arm around her,” Ellis said. “Maybe I crossed the border, maybe I was too friendly or familiar but again, I apologize.”

He said he hugged all the performers during Friday’s eight-hour service.

“I hug all the female artists and the male artists,” Ellis said. “Everybody that was up, I shook their hands and hugged them. That’s what we are all about in the church. We are all about love.”

He added: “The last thing I want to do is to be a distraction to this day. This is all about Aretha Franklin.”

Seriously?? You also hug male performers by awkwardly reaching under their shoulders toward their breasts?? Bullshit. Perhaps it all depends on your definition of a “hug”. I don’t buy the apology. I believe a grown man is fully aware of choosing to reach under the arm of a woman to hug her, rather than around her shoulder where there is no possibility of touching her breast. One would like to think that a man of God would be especially mindful of the bad optics and/or possible misinterpretation that might follow such a decision. Thankfully my bar of expectation for those in the pulpit to actually behave in a Christ-like manner is at an all-time low, so this isn’t all that shocking. Business as usual. And how sad is that.

P.S. For those who believe the bishop did not “cross the border” and are basing that opinion on one photograph, the video clip gives a clearer, much fuller picture of what took place.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

Chair of California Democrat Party Calls for Boycott of In-N-Out; Hilarity Ensues

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 10:12 am



Some Democrats in California are trying to boycott In-N-Out for donating some money to Republicans. It’s … not going so well. Here’s the annoyingly amusing story of how it happened.

On Wednesday, a “journalist” did what “journalists” do: obtained a fact and immmediately misinterpreted and misrepresented it:

It’s not a “new item” for In-N-Out to donate to Republicans. And they also donate to Democrats. L.A. Magazine did a decent story that explained these facts:

It’s certainly not the first In-N-Out Republican contribution. The fast food chain has a long history of donating to political causes. In 2017 and 2016, the company donated $30,000 per year to the California GOP for general party expenses.

In some areas of California, Republicans seem to be playing defense in 2018, even in areas where they’ve comfortably held seats for long periods of time. If they can continue to out-fundraise and out-spend progressive challengers in those competitive districts, they may be able to hold on.

In-N-Out isn’t a one-party burger shop, though. The corporation has also given $50,000 this year to a PAC known as Californians for Jobs and a Strong Economy. That group is as pro-business as the name implies, but, as the Sacramento Bee reported in 2014, it was founded by David Townsend, a political operative who identifies as a centrist Democrat.

But, of course, being “journalists,” they slapped a misleading headline on their piece: Your Favorite Burger Chain Just Donated a Bunch of Money to the Republican Party. The headline suggested this was “news” rather than business as usual, and that the donations were one-sided when they weren’t.

Then a politician did what politicians do (and everybody else in the world does as well): read the headline but not the story, and reacted stupidly on Twitter:

This particular politician happened to be the Chair of the Democrat Party in California. So it kinda got some attention. It became a nationwide story, with #Resist types promising to join the boycott and many conservatives pledging to make a visit soon to show their support.

These sorts of controversies always annoy me. Why do we have to make every damned thing in the world about politics? I’m glad In-N-Out turns out to have donated money to Democrats too, just so we don’t have another company labeled as the “Republican fast food place.” Although if Republicans were going to claim one, In-N-Out would be a good one to claim: fresh ingredients served by friendly employees who are well taken care of. This is a place so popular that literally any time of day you try to go there, you’ll sit in the drive-through line three times as long as any other fast-food place.

This campaign is in trouble:

I don’t know anything about Jim Patterson, but I immediately like him from this tweet. I liked him even better when, in response to someone’s comment about the unequal distribution of straws, he said:

Strike a blow for sanity. Too few such blows are struck these days. We need to notice when they are.


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